Google Android To Be Trimmed With Chrome

A version of Google’s new Chrome browser will find itself onto the company’s Android mobile platform, according to company co-founder Sergey Brin.

Credit: Google

From Computerworld:

In yet another example of Google Inc.‘s expanding influence, the search company’s co-founder, Sergey Brin, said he expects the new Google browser, Chrome, to eventually become part of the Android wireless phone platform, which is under separate development by the Google-led Open Handset Alliance.

Brin, in an interview with CNET at the Chrome announcement yesterday, said that “probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack.” Google officials were unavailable to elaborate.

Although they are being developed separately, both Chrome and Android’s browser rely on WebKit open-source software for interpreting the HTML code that builds and renders a Web page.

The first Android phone is expected to launch in November. Known as the Dream phone, it will be manufactured by HTC and will be first sold in the U.S. by T-Mobile.

Google’s ultimate ability to increase its influence in the mobile device market may well depend on whether a mobile Chrome browser is used in any other phones that use Android software, several analysts said. The mobile browsers available today include FireFox, Internet Explorer, Opera and the emerging Skyfire.

From InformationWeek:

Android and Chrome were developed separately, but will probably be tied closer now that the first Android-powered handsets are just around the corner.

Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News

“Probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack,” Brin said in an interview with Cnet Tuesday. The search company unveiled Chrome Tuesday to much fanfare as the company claims the open-source browser is the fastest out there.

Chrome is built on Apple’s WebKit engine, and includes a JavaScript engine that’s designed to handle multiple processes, each with its own memory. Additionally, the browser has draggable tabs, and it has been optimized to be used with Web applications, including the company’s Gmail, Google Docs, and more.

While features like multiple sandboxed processes would probably not make the cut on a cell phone, a mobile version would probably be built on the same fundamental technologies. Being able to easily and efficiently integrate with Web apps could give Android an advantage in the increasingly competitive mobile browser market.

Take a spin through our Google Chrome image gallery and have a look at the browser that’s being touted as a game-changer.

From CNET:

Google’s new Chrome browser is for PCs today, but company co-founder Sergey Brin expects the technology will make its way to Android, the company’s mobile phone operating system and software suite.

Chrome and Android were developed largely separately, Brin said in an interview at the Chrome launch event Tuesday. “We have not wanted to bind one’s hands to the other’s,” Brin said. But you can expect that to change now that both projects are public and nearing their first final releases.

“Probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack,” Brin said, pointing to JavaScript improvements as one area.

And the brand name likely will follow. “My guess is we’ll have ‘Chrome-like’ or something similar,” he said.

Chrome and Android’s current browser both already employ WebKit, an open-source project for the process of interpreting the HTML code that makes up a Web page and rendering it on a screen.

Mozilla CEO Not Worried About Google Chrome

But should they be?

From ZDNet:

Mozilla CEO John Lilly said he has no worries about Google jumping into the open source browser market.

In a blog posted on September 1 before the beta release of Google’s Chrome yesterday, Lilly noted that Mozilla’s Firefox has plenty of competition and reminded the public that the foundation’s primary motive is to keep the web open.

“As much as anything else, it’ll mean there’s another interesting browser that users can choose. With IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc — there’s been competition for a while now, and this increases that. So it means that more than ever, we need to build software that people care about and love. Firefox is good now, and will keep on getting better,” Lilly wrote. “Competition often results in innovation of one sort or another — in the browser you can see that this is true in spades this year, with huge Javascript performance increases, security process advances, and user interface breakthroughs. I’d expect that to continue now that Google has thrown their hat in the ring.”

Lilly also said the two organizations will continue to cooperate and hinted that Mozilla will remain independent.

“It should come as no real surprise that Google has done something here — their business is the web, and they’ve got clear opinions on how things should be, and smart people thinking about how to make things better. Chrome will be a browser optimized for the things that they see as important, and it’ll be interesting to see how it evolves,” he wrote.

Google announced the beta release of Chrome as Mozilla prepares to freeze the beta 1 code for Firefox 3.1 on September 30 and as Microsoft IE8 beta slips into the marketplace.

From InformationWeek:

The Wall Street Journal’s Walter Mossberg has been testing Google’s Chrome browser for a week next to Firefox and the latest version of Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s Internet Explorer. His verdict? “Chrome is a smart, innovative browser that, in many common scenarios, will make using the Web faster, easier, and less frustrating.”

What can I say, I am jealous. Mr. Mossberg gets to play with everything before anyone else does. First there was the iPhone. Then the 3G iPhone. Now Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s freshly available Chrome browser.

I downloaded the browser myself a few moments ago and am still developing my first impressions. Upon set up, Chrome automatically imported all of my Firefox bookmarks and settings. On my crusty, old Panasonic WinXP machine, it is running a bit slow. I blame the PC more then I do the browser in this case. Mr. Mossberg, who was running faster gear than I, blamed the browser. He said, “Despite Google’s claims that Chrome is fast, it was notably slower in my tests at the common task of launching Web pages than either Firefox or Safari.”

In my first few moments of use, I was tooling around the Chrome-specific Web pages to learn more about it when one of the Chrome pages crashed. I saw an amusing error message that read, “Aw, snap! The web page you were attempting to load is unresponsive.” This tickled my funny bone a bit.

Using Chrome will definitely take some getting used to. With Firefox, the tabs are all placed below the address bar. In Chrome, they are all above it. This means extra travel time with your mouse. Mossberg writes, “Chrome does away with most menus and toolbar icons to give maximum screen space for the Web pages themselves. Also, Google has merged the address bar, where you type in Web addresses, with the search box, where you type in search terms. This unified feature is called the Omnibox. One striking difference in Chrome is how it handles tabs, which display a single Web page. In Chrome, each tab behaves as a separate browser. The bookmarks bar, Omnibox, menus and toolbar icons are located inside the tab, rather than atop the entire browser. The tabs appear at the top of the computer screen. Chrome also groups related tabs.”

Google has a big month planned for September with Chrome and Android on the horizon. It will be interesting to see the publics reaction to each of these products. Will they be positive or negative? Thoughts?

Google Chrome: New Browser Coming Soon

First, it was Google Android. Now, the news is about Google Chrome, Google’s long-rumored open-source browser project, which is about to arrive. A detailed, 38-page comic appeared on Google Blogoscoped and the book is broken down into five main sections covering stability; speed; search and the user experience, security, and standards.

From Google:

So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web. All of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends — all using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there.

Credit: Google Blogoscoped

We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build. On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

From the Associated Press:

Google will begin distributing its own browser in a move likely to heat up its rivalry with Microsoft.

The Internet search leader confirmed the long-rumored browser in a Monday posting on its Web site. Google said the free browser, called “Chrome,” will be available for downloading Tuesday.

The browser represents Google Inc.’s latest challenge to Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer is used by nearly 75 percent of Web surfers. Google has been concerned that Microsoft will try to program Internet Explorer in a way that makes it more difficult for Google’s search engine to attract traffic.

Credit: Google Blogoscoped

From GigaOm:

Google in a blog post on their website has acknowledged the existence of Google Chrome, a browser that the company will be releasing tomorrow. Kara Swisher has confirmed the existence of Google Chrome, a browser developed by the Mountain View, Calif.-based search company. The rumors of the browser were reported earlier on Google Blogoscoped, which received a comic book that outlined the key features of the browser.

• It is based on Webkit and will include Google Gears.
• It includes Javascript Virtual Machine called V8 that was developed by a team in Denmark.
  
• It accelerates the Javascript performance and is multi-threaded.
• It has tabs, auto-completion, and a dashboard type start page that can help you get going to the web services you need. Opera has such a dashboard.
• It has a privacy mode that allows you to use the machine without logging anything on the local machine.
  
• It might be similar to a feature called Incognito in the latest version of Microsoft IE.
• Malware and phishing protection would be built into this browser.

From BoomTown:

In its most frontal and aggressive attack on Microsoft yet, sources with knowledge of the project said Google is preparing to unveil a new browser–ready for download to users as early as tomorrow–to try to loosen Microsoft’s iron grip on the most important piece of software to navigate the Internet.

In addition, Google Blogoscoped has published a comic book that Google is apparently using to explain the technical aspects of its open-source browser, which is called Chrome.

Credit: Google Blogoscoped

From CNET:

While the illustrations, created by cartoonist Scott McCloud, were not announced by Google, they do contain the quotes and likenesses of 19 Google developers.

CNET News.com Editor in Chief Dan Farber’s analysis of Google Chrome Monday was this: “It would be in line with other Google open-source projects, such as OpenSocial and Google Gears. Creating a competitor to Firefox, as well as Internet Explorer and Opera, could spur more innovation.”

“Open sourcing the code is a smart way to avoid the ‘Google wants to take over the world’ fear, but it seems that Google has ambitions to create a comprehensive Internet operating system, including a browser, applications, middleware and cloud infrastructure.”

From InformationWeek:

Yes, you read that correctly. Google is taking a major swipe at its competitors with the imminent launch of Chrome, a new Web browser based on Webkit. Thus marks the beginning of a new phase in the browser wars.

Kara Swischer at The Wall Street Journal got perhaps one of the biggest scoops of the year. She spoke to some people familiar with some of the projects Google is working on. Those sources say that Google is set to unveil a brand new Web browser that will be available to everyone as early as tomorrow (Tuesday).

Not only is Google going announcing a new browser, but it is making the announcement with a comic book. That’s hot.

Google has talked the browser talk for years. The last time I heard anything formal about it from the Google camp was nearly a year ago. Looks like Google is ready to walk the browser walk with Chrome.